Word: lumping
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...good reason to be grateful. Two weeks earlier, after reading about First Lady Betty Ford's well-publicized operation for breast cancer, Happy decided to do what doctors urge all women to do regularly: examine her breasts for suspicious growths. To her dismay, she found a small lump in her left breast. Happy wasted no time asking for an appointment with her gynecologist, who found several more lumps. Then she checked into the hospital for a biopsy to determine if the growths were in fact cancerous. When the tests proved positive, doctors immediately performed a mastectomy. They amputated...
...When a lump is found, some women try to ignore it, hoping that it will go away. Jean Tyler, 44, a former showgirl and fashion model who now works as a fashion consultant in Hollywood, discovered one in her breast a year ago. "I put it out of my mind then," she recalls. "I knew there was something there, but I didn't want to touch it." Her doctor dissuaded her from further delay. In the past, frightened women often waited as long as a year before reporting a suspicious lump to their doctors; if the tumor was malignant...
...most cases, the discovery of a lump is not a prelude to disaster. The female breast, which changes daily throughout the menstrual cycle, is particularly susceptible to abnormal but harmless growths. Many younger women develop cysts, or small packets of fluid. Fatty growths are not uncommon. In fact, reports the American Cancer Society, 65% to 80% of all breast lumps are not cancerous...
...examining breast lumps, doctors can quickly rule out growths that are not cancerous. If it hurts, according to gynecology texts, it is unlikely to be malignant. Manipulation can also help screen out the innocent lumps; if they seem unanchored and can be moved about under the skin, they are usually benign cysts. A needle biopsy, in which a needle is inserted into the lump and fluid or cells are withdrawn, can also be used to identify cysts. But some growths are too small or too well concealed behind other tissues for such procedures. In those cases, the only...
Malignant Clusters. While most doctors believe that surgery is essential, there are those who insist that complete amputation is not necessary. Dr. Vera Peters of Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital advocates a simple procedure called "lumpectomy," in which only the cancerous lump is removed. She says her research shows that in cancers that have not spread to the lymph nodes, lumpectomy is just as effective as the more radical operations and far less damaging psychologically. (The problem is how to determine that the lymph nodes are uninvolved; most doctors feel that the only sure way to tell...